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Champions Square plans concert series, including a Fun. show this fall

Trombone Shorty at Gleason Gras 2012

Under a proposed plan, the Champions Square stage on which Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue performed during the 2012 Gleason Gras would be replaced with a larger, permanent stage in order to host bigger concerts.

Following a planned summertime upgrade, Champions Square also will be a concerts square. SMG, the company that manages the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and the New Orleans Arena, and its promotion partners intend to present between 12 and 20 outdoor concerts annually at the Square.

The first announced show is an Oct. 5 performance by Grammy-winning pop-rock band fun., best known for the hit “We Are Young.” General admission tickets are on sale now for $35.50 plus service fees through Ticketmaster.

“The idea all along was that it would be a multi-use space,” said SMG’s Alan Freeman. With the fully illuminated Superdome as a backdrop, Champions Square “is a unique (concert) setting. You’re in an urban setting, as opposed to a forest like most amphitheaters. It’s an untested concept, but we think that it’s going to work.”

The original concept for Champions Square, which opened before the 2010 Saints season, envisioned a full-fledged, year-round entertainment zone. So far, the space has been used primarily for tailgate parties and other Saints- and Hornets-related activities, most of which feature live entertainment.

The Square has hosted several public events not tied to games, including a Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra performance, the recent New Orleans International Beer Festival, and Gleason Gras, an annual festival/fundraiser to benefit former Saints special teams star Steve Gleason and his campaign to raise awareness of ALS.

The proposed concert series is the most ambitious nonsports initiative for Champions Square to date.

To accommodate production demands of major touring bands, plans call for the existing modular stage to be replaced this summer by a larger, more substantial, permanent stage. Backstage dressing rooms would also be built.

To produce the concert series, SMG is negotiating with Russell Doussan’s Mandeville-based event production company Blue Deuce Entertainment and Red Mountain Entertainment, a concert and event promotion company headquartered in Birmingham, Ala. Blue Deuce mainly promotes concerts outside the New Orleans area, often in partnership with Red Mountain.

Blue Deuce and Red Mountain have made bids on a “handful” of shows for 2013 in addition to fun., Freeman said. He expects the full concert series to launch in spring 2014.

Champions Square is owned by Zelia LLC, a company controlled by members of Saints and Hornets owner Tom Benson’s family. The Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District, which also is known as the Superdome Commission and oversees state-owned sports facilities, leases Champions Square from Zelia year-round.

As part of a 2010 agreement with the Saints, the LSED is tasked with developing vacant properties adjacent to Champions Square, including the former Macy’s department store and ground-floor mall food court along LaSalle Street. The larger goal of the concert series is to draw more attention and foot traffic to the area, and possibly jump-start development of properties that have been unoccupied since Hurricane Katrina and now are owned by Zelia.

“The concert series will hopefully make money,” Freeman said. “But in the long term, we want to put more content out there to spur development of the property that is still vacant. We’re hoping this moves the process along, and we can find tenants."

An October 5 performance by the band fun. is the first announced show of a planned concert series at Champions Square alongside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Part of the New Orleans Centre mall, which did not reopen after Katrina, was demolished to make way for Champions Square. The initial construction budget of $13.5 million did not allow for a full-size concert stage or dressing rooms, showers and other backstage amenities.

The LSED is paying for the backstage upgrades. Once a pending deal is finalized, Saints owner/vice chairwoman of the board Rita Benson LeBlanc would fund front-of-house improvements, including a much larger stage and superstructure.

The current Champions Square stage is 36 feet wide and 30 feet deep. The proposed new stage would be 60 feet wide and 40 feet deep, the same size as the stage used in the New Orleans Arena.

The grid above the current stage can support around 7,000 pounds of sound and light equipment. Around 55,000 pounds of gear could hang from the new structure.

“The promoters did their homework and decided that could sustain just about every touring act” that typically sells around 6,000 tickets per show, Freeman said.

The venue’s capacity is around 7,000 for a standing-room-only event such as the fun. concert, or between 4,500 and 5,000 for a seated show. The upgraded stage would be six feet tall, instead of the usual five feet, to improve sight lines for seated shows.

Concert promotion, Freeman notes, “is not for the faint of heart.” Regardless of how many tickets are sold, performers still must be paid a guaranteed fee that can reach well into six figures; if a show bombs, a promoter can lose tens of thousands of dollars. Outdoor concerts also are susceptible to rain.

Generally, a promoter pays a flat fee to rent a venue for a concert. By contrast, SMG would be an active partner with Blue Deuce and Red Mountain, with terms of the arrangement to still be finalized.

Packaging concerts as a part of a series, rather than simply presenting individual shows, allows organizers to sell series sponsorships and season tickets as a hedge against individual shows that might lose money.

Beyond the concert series, SMG’s proposed arrangement with Blue Deuce and Red Mountain is nonexclusive. Other promoters can stage concerts and events at Champions Square.

Given the noise complaints lodged with the New Orleans City Council following the recent BUKU electronic music festival at the East Bank Mardi Gras World, Freeman said operating hours and noise levels at Champions Square will be carefully monitored. No residences are nearby, and Freeman hopes to solicit letters of support for the concert series from area businesses.

Even as the Champions Square concert calendar expands, another SMG-managed venue, the New Orleans Arena, is temporarily going dark. The Arena will be closed for renovations from May until October. Country star George Strait’s sold-out April 13 show will be the last concert at the arena until fall. The New Orleans Arena also will miss out on its annual summer residency by the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus.

“You bite the bullet short-term to reap the long-term benefits,” Freeman said of the renovations.

The independent Beaver Productions, for decades the dominant promoter in the New Orleans market, and national powerhouse Live Nation still promote most major rock concerts at the New Orleans Arena, the largest local venue other than the Superdome. But upstart companies are utilizing a spate of newer, alternative venues.

Champions Square is closest in size to the Lakefront Arena, on the University of New Orleans campus. The Lakefront can accommodate 10,000 people in its full, in-the-round configuration. If seats aren’t sold behind the stage, the Lakefront’s flexible capacity peaks at around 6,500.

Given the similar capacities, Champions Square may wind up competing with the Lakefront Arena for shows.

“To some degree, we might,” Freeman said. “Our hope is to get acts that, for whatever reason, might be bypassing New Orleans.”

Music writer Keith Spera can be reached at kspera@nola.com or 504.826.3470. Follow him on Twitter at KeithSpera.